Slytherins Can't Change Their Scales
by Lorneytunes
Summary: The fifth year Slytherin, Amy Hemingford, has just survived a house fire which cost her everything. Her house, family and status among her friends are all gone. Where will she live now? Who will her new friends be? Who will gain her family's assets? ABANDONED
1. Happy New Year

**Author's Note: Hello and welcome to my first ever HP fic. Exciting, isn't it? I make nooo guarantees whatsoever about how often I'm going to update, or how long the chapters will be or where the plot's going to go or how many chapters there will be. Anywho, get reading the first 1000 or so words of what might be a great fic some day. If I ever finish it.**

**Disclaimer: If I wanted to make money, I wouldn't do it writing fanfiction. Who in their right mind would pay to read Snupin? (Not that that's in here, or ever will be, in anything I write. Ever. *shudders*) If I wanted to make money, I would've written Harry Potter, which I didn't. That means I don't own the characters either. I do own Amy, Maxwell and any minor made-ups I decide to throw in later, though. Oh, and the plot. If I catch you stealing it, me and my TDA buddies will be on the warpath. That is all. Enjoy your read.**

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If you look at it from the right angle, and you have a really dark sense of humour, then this is actually kind of funny. I mean, look at who the bad luck's fallen on. Is it a noble, daring, goody two-shoes Gryffindor? A witty, intelligent, sarcastic Ravenclaw? A hard-working, thick-headed Hufflepuff? Of course not. To storybook perfection, the bad times have fallen on the bad guy; the sneaky, evil Slytherin; me.

I suppose I learned a few things, though. Which is good, right? It's not a good story if it doesn't have a moral at the end. So, I got to learn who my real friends are, and none of them are in Slytherin. Which basically means none of them. My 'crowd' politely told me at the start of the school term that while they were sorry for my loss, it was too great a loss for them to continue being associated with me. They never even softened the blow by saying 'friends'. I should probably tell you what happened now.

Over the Winter holidays, we had a spectacular New Years Eve party. We had a huge, wooden dance floor set up outside, fireworks set to go off later, a bonfire to warm the guests seeing as it was Winter, a buffet, live entertainment, hundreds of invited guests... everything that should have made it an amazing evening. It was, I suppose. The party went fine: the effects were all timed right, nobody misused any magic in drunken high spirits, and nobody was caught sneaking off into a bedroom with their best friend's spouse. (Note the word 'caught'. I've heard a few stories.) Of course, all that ended at about three in the morning when everybody finally left. Then, myy family and I all went up to our rooms. (That's my mother, father, my little brother Jordy and I. Oh, and my Uncle. He was staying with us for the week.) Nobody could be bothered putting out the bonfire, but we assumed it would be fine since we'd left it surrounded by stones.

I fell asleep quickly as I was so tired from entertaining, but I woke up again with a start a few hours later. I wasn't sure straight away what had woken me, until I heard the strange crackling noise. I looked towards the door and saw smoke drifting under it. Sleepily, I wondered to myself, _What the hell is going on?_  
I slipped my dressing gown on as I got out of bed, a multi-tasking operation I'd taught myself years ago. I ambled slowly towards the door. When I reached it, I yawned, covering my mouth with my left hand, while at the same time my right grasped the door handle. I let out a yelp and drew my hand back to my chest, covering it with the other. The metal door handle was burning hot.  
_Stupid little brother_, I thought to myself, _playing tricks on me at this hour._  
Seeing as the door handle was just hot, I wrapped my dressing gown around my non-burnt hand and used it to open the door. A wall of smoke billowed into my face and sent me into a fit of coughs. I couldn't see past my doorway in either direction. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Through the smoke I could see flickering orange lights. That's when I realised. _The house is on fire!_  
"Mother!" I called out. "Mummy!" There was no answer. I tried to run left to reach my parents' room, but after a few metres the heat became too unbearable and the smoke was too thick. I was coughing horrendously now. I pulled my dressing gown over my face as I tried the other end of the hallway. I met the same predicament. I ran back into my room, slamming the door shut and not caring about how hot the handle was. I looked out the window. Now I could see what had happened. The bonfire had spilled over onto the wooden dance floor, which had caught fire and spread to the garden beds surrounding the house. The flames had gone through the windows, up the trellises of roses and everywhere else they could find. My bedroom was on the fourth floor. I had no hope of getting down naturally, and I didn't know any magic that could help me. Magic...of course! My new broom was still sitting in the brown paper it had been wrapped in when we'd bought it because I had no interest in flying. It was under my bed right now!  
I practically dived under my bed to retrieve the package. Once I had it out I laid it on the bed and scrabbled with both hands to unwrap it. My cough was getting worse and worse now, I had to get out of there.  
I finally had my broom unwrapped. Leaving the paper on my bed, I grabbed the handle and ran back to the window. I threw it open (thank goodness it was so large), stepped clumsily over the broom and kicked off. I rose into the air and wobbled forward. I could barely remember what I'd been taught in first year, but at least I was moving.

Somehow, I managed to get to the ground. I left the broom in the grass and ran around the house shouting and screaming for everyone I could think of. Mother, Father, Jordy, my uncle who had been sleeping in a guest room downstairs... It was then that I came across Mopsy, our house elf. She was cowering in the bushes about a hundred metres away from the house.  
"Mopsy," I practically screamed at her, "where are Mother and Father?"  
"Mopsy has not seen mistress's parents. Mopsy ran outside when the fire started. Mopsy... Mopsy has been here ever since..."  
She cowered, expecting a blow. I should have given it to her for abandoning us like she did, but I was too distraught. I ran to the front doors and tried to get in. I couldn't open them. I banged and banged on them but they wouldn't open. Just then somebody grabbed me from behind. I turned around, about to hit them. It was my uncle. He grabbed my wrist and forced it to my side.  
"Amy?" His face was very close to mine but he was calling out to me. "Amy? This is very important, Amy. Have you seen your parents? Your brother? Has anybody else made it out?"  
"N-no," I stuttered, pulling back. He pulled me a safe distance away from the house and sat me onto the gritty ground. Then he ran around to the other side.

It was a few minutes before I realised it was the ashes of the dance floor I was sitting on. I stood up and dusted them off of my hands and my nightgown. I stared at the house with tears in my eyes; feeling hopeless. Then I remembered my broom. I could fly up to the windows and find Jordy and my parents and ferry them back to the ground. I ran towards the house, but I only managed to take a few steps before it exploded. I felt a searing heat and I flew into the air. I landed on the ground with a thump and blacked out.


	2. Oh, so I'm alive

**Author's Note: Alrighty :D Here's Chapter 2 for you. I had a strange amount of inspiration last night and so I had it half done by the time I got around to writing again today. Don't expect updates to be this frequent all the time, they should slow down very soon seeing as Term 4 and exams are coming up, but for now, I might manage to have another chapter for you tomorrow as well. Might. We'll see how it goes.**

**Oh, and all reviews get thanked in the next chapter.**

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own the series. All I own are Amy, the other characters and this plot. Kinda sucks, don't it?

Unsurprisingly, I woke up at St. Mungo's. Well, it was a surprise to me at first. When I woke up I was in a metal bed with white sheets, with bandages on my hands and face, a heart monitor attached to my finger and I could hear gentle beeping. As my head took all this in, I slowly noticed the white walls of the single ward I was in. And realised it was a ward. I yawned and used my non-cabled hand to cover my mouth. I slid upwards in bed which set off another gentle beeping. Soon after, a healer came in. He checked his clipboard.  
"Good afternoon, Amy," he greeted me in a calm, laid-back sounding voice.  
"Oh," I replied. "I've slept all day?"

He chuckled. "You've slept for three."  
"What about my family?" I realised suddenly. "Are they here? Are any of them awake?"  
The healer looked sad and I cringed. _Please don't let them be-_  
"I'm sorry to tell you, Amy, but..." he trailed off.  
_Please, no...  
"_Your mother, father and brother died in the fire at your house," he finished.  
_No...no, no, no, no!_ I sat there in silence. All I could hear was my own voice screaming in my head. This couldn't be happening. My annoying but sweet brother dead at only age five? My parents, the only two people I loved as much as him, gone too? Why? What had we done to deserve this? My father hadn't even been a Death Eater! He'd been too young to join during the last war and he hadn't yet been influenced to join 'the cause' this time. Sure we knew our class, but we weren't bad people... Why had my parents been taken away?  
All these questions spun around in my head, and the healer didn't say a word. He just sat and watched me until I'd wiped away the tears that had trailed down my cheeks while I was thinking. I looked at him, waiting to know more.  
"Your parents bodies were too destroyed to bury. Your brother's room didn't catch on fire until the very end, but he died of smoke inhalation before then. But you will have a body to bury..." There was a pause and he seemed to have to collect himself, obviously troubled by my loss. "As for _you_, you've got some pretty nasty burns on your hands, and some far worse ones on your face. The ones on your face were caused when your house exploded, and will take a few weeks to heal properly, but the ones on your hands are really just bad blisters and will heal before you go back to school."  
School. I'd forgotten about that. How could I be expected to go back to school after all that had happened? How could I be expected to do anything? I wanted to curl up and die.  
"Your aunt will be here tomorrow morning to pick you up and take you to she and your uncle's house. I'll give them the potions you need to take and some bandages. You need to change them daily."  
Only my Aunt? I realised I hadn't seen my uncle again before the explosion. Had he suffered the same fate as the rest of my family? No, it couldn't be, the healer would have mentioned him. Was he unable to leave yet, then? Was he in a coma? What was wrong?  
"What about my uncle?" I asked fearfully. "Is he okay?"  
The healer looked taken aback by my concern, then he righted himself, laughed and said, "Your uncle's fine. He couldn't come to see you because he had work to do."  
Ah. Typical Uncle Maxwell behaviour. He was always sorry you were injured, but would be unable to visit because he had an important meeting or some other business to attend to. I sighed in relief and the healer smiled at me. He looked at his clipboard again.  
"Well, there's nothing else you need to know right now. You've missed Lunch, but I'll add you to the Dinner list now that you're awake. Food should arrive somewhere between five and six. For now I'd suggest you get some rest. If you don't feel like it, though, there's copies of Witch Weekly and a few other magazines in the drawer of the table next to your bed. If you need anything, there's also a button there so you can call someone to help you." He stood there for a moment checking I didn't have any more questions then finished with, "Well, Amy, I'll be back tomorrow morning to check on you before you leave."  
Pretending my moments of weakness from before hadn't happened, I gave him my sweetest smile and told him formally that he'd been very kind. A puzzled look crossed his face, but he finally left without saying anything more.

The next morning as I woke up, I heard voices beside my bed. I kept my eyes closed and listened for a while.  
"Thank you for taking such good care of her," a female voice was saying. I guessed this was Uncle Maxwell's wife.  
"It was nothing, it is our job and in most cases our passion, after all. Thank you for coming to take her home so soon. She really needs more time to heal, but we don't have enough beds to keep her here for that long." That was my healer's voice, I recognised him.  
"I understand. Hospitals do seem to get so very crowded these days. So it's just bandages to keep the wounds out of the air and the potion will do the rest?"  
"That's correct."  
I decided to open my eyes now. Although I was slightly annoyed to hear that someone with as much money as myself couldn't keep hold of a bed. I sat up a little, but I immediately felt woozy and threatened to bring yesterday's small dinner back up. I slid back down again. The rustling got the room's two other participants' attention. They looked at me just as my eyes focused on them. There was the healer I'd heard, and there was the woman whose voice I'd assumed was my aunt's, but this was not my her.


	3. Which one of us belongs in hopsital?

**Author's Note: So, I hope you enjoy Amy having a total, drama queen moment. I really hope this chapter is as fun for you to read as it was for me to write. :D**

**I'm also sorry for how horrendously long it took me to put this chapter up. It's been sitting half-finished in my Fanfiction folder for some time now, V.C.E. just got in the way. Once again, I hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not J.K. Rowling. I don't own Harry Potter or its characters, just Amy, the minor characters and the plot. This is entirely for my own amusement, not profit.**

The room's other occupants were quite startled when I suddenly let out a loud, piercing shriek of terror. All the while I wondered: Who was this woman? What did she want with me? Why wasn't my aunt here to pick me up like the healer had said?  
The looks of shock and confusion intensified when I burst into tears. The woman rushed toward me. She was trying to kill me! I scrabbled over to the other side of the bed. The burned skin on my hands stung as the bandages dug into it and minor cuts on my arms and legs did the same, but it didn't matter; I had to get away from her! She was trying to put her arms around me. Now the healer was rushing to her aid. I had thought I could trust him! He seemed so nice!  
I kept trying to move off of the bed, but now that the healer had joined in I had no hope. He grabbed my arms with a surprisingly strong grip and held me still. I struggled and bawled, but he dragged me back onto the matress, forced my arms under the sheets, and held the white linen tight against me, pinning me down. His accomplice put her evil hands on my face. What was she doing? Was she going to snap my neck? They moved up, the back of one resting against my forehead. _Oh. My. God._ The woman was _checking my temperature_! Aside from thinking about the fact that a fever was a fairly stupid thing to be checking for on someone in the burns unit, I had to wonder why she was showing such care and concern towards me. Who the fucking hell _was_ this woman? She hugged me close to her, and I went limp, not responding to her and utterly confused. The healer let go of the sheets.

The woman finally let go of me and stood back, taking a good look at me. Tears were in her eyes and she looked just as bewildered as I probably did. I used this opportunity to take a good look at _her_ for the first time. She had a thin face with high cheekbones. Her mousy brown hair was thin and was practically floating out of the messy bun she pad it piled in on the back of her head. Her eyes were a clear, pale grey and she had little wrinkles in the corners of her eyes that looked like crows' feet. My eyes moved down to her clothes. They were very worn and the black in them was fading to grey. Here and there, little holes had been left unmended and were fraying.  
"What's wrong, Amy?" the healer finally asked in a tentative voice.  
I swallowed and tried to clear my throat which was now aching from the screaming and crying and probably from the smoke in the fire as well.  
"Who _are_ you?" was my eventual answer. I hadn't looked at the healer when he spoke; I was still staring at the woman. She looked even more shocked now.  
"This is your au-" the healer began.  
"She is _NOT_ my _aunt_." They both stared at me for a moment. The bewildered woman, who I was starting to think had something mentally wrong with her, looked at the healer in a state of, if possible, even _more_ confusion.  
"But...but I _am..._" the poor woman couldn't even finish her sentence. Perhaps she had the wrong ward. Or _perhaps_ I was right and she _was_ deranged after all.  
The healer lit his wand and leaned over my bed, waving it in front of my face. He asked me to follow it with my eyes. Then he asked me to look somewhere else in the room and focus on that rather than the light as he continued waving it. After a few more tests, like asking me my name, where I was born, what my parents' names were and other details about my life, he seemed satisfied. He stood back and turned to the strange woman.  
"Have the two of you met before?" he asked her.  
"Well, no..." she began. _Aha._ Now we were getting somewhere. "We weren't able to visit often. Aaron has a lot of work to do. And Daniel, his brother, seemed just as busy..."  
"And Aaron is your husband?" asked the healer.  
"Yes," she confirmed, looking shaken, upset and worried. Well, it wasn't _my_ fault that nobody had told me anything.

The healer looked at me. "She's already presented the administration witches with identification. It's been tested by all the usual spells and, just in case, a few of my own I like to throw in. She is who she says she is. This woman is your aunt. She wants to take you home, Amy."

"My home is _gone_," I growled, some of the emotional pain I felt finally filtering through the carefully crafted pureblood façade of composure I had been trying to put back in its place around my features.  
The woman-my _aunt_, I grudgingly acknowledged-closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn't try to hide the hurt that she also felt, just tried not to let it get the best of her, to stay on top of it. I found I could respect that. She wasn't a blood relation, so it wasn't inherent, but my uncle couldn't deny that he was a part of our family, however much he tried to. I was sure he must have recognised this social resilience in her and felt attracted to it. However… whenever I tried to picture it, I could only see the two of them on a mansion balcony, overlooking a beautiful garden and both dressed in finery. But I knew that that was so far from the truth. I had seen my aunt's clothing. Their life was worlds different from mine. Going with this woman… meant giving up everything I'd had. It meant accepting the loss of my pureblooded, wealthy, distinguished world and descending into working-class ambiguity. But what choice did I have? Uncle Maxwell didn't want me… my family was…- I swallowed. I had to go with her.

During all this thinking, the healer and the woman had been watching me warily. I focused on them and, with the most determined-looking smile I could fake, I asked brightly, "When can I leave?" I wondered if to myself I meant, "When can I go back to my old life again?" but that wasn't the question I got an answer to.

"You can go home within the hour," the healer told me, glancing at my chart. "All it will take is a little while to sign some papers, and then you can leave."

I gave them another fake smile and nodded. Then I closed my eyes and pretended to rest so I wouldn't have to talk to them anymore.

**AN2: This chapter is to **_**grangergal101**_**, my best friend and sole reviewer.**


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